The 1970s was a strange decade for Chicago music. With the record industry running for the coasts and the consolidation of radio ownership, it became harder for local acts to make it nationally. Still, that didn’t stop some Chicago bands from trying to make it big and succeeding.

Tony Rogers put out one of the best — and most ambitious — pop albums of the year. Sycamore, a 20-track song cycle inspired by the novel Hello Loved Ones by Tammy Letherer, is by turns catchy, joyous, plaintive and, as is clear from the interview and performance below with Ton